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Distributed for Iter Press

The Writings of an English Sappho

In this weighty edition of Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russell’s works, based on extensive archival research, Patricia Phillippy brings together all known writings by her: letters, poems in English, Latin, and Greek, documents describing and planning christenings, weddings, and funerals, monumental inscriptions, entertainments, petitions, and Russell’s will. This ambitious and timely collection puts into practice recent critical arguments about the nature of women’s writings and the importance of occasional verse, familial poetry, letters, and petitions as characteristically women’s work. This collection also situates Russell, a woman, squarely and influentially in the humanist tradition, and explores her important place in English letters. This edition moves the field of early modern women’s studies into new territory, with its treatment of monumental verse as an integral part of Russell’s oeuvre.
—Jane Donawerth
Professor of English and affiliate faculty in women’s studies
University of Maryland

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Table of Contents

Illustrations xi
Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgments xv
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I—LADY HOBY (1566–1573)
Letters 1–3 42
Poems 49
Documents 54
Monuments 77
PART II—LADY RUSSELL (1574–1593)
Letters 4–13 92
Poems 122
Documents 125
Monuments 158
PART III—A COURTIER AND PARLIAMENT WOMAN (1594–1600)
Letters 14–47 180
Poems 257
Documents 262
Monument 277
PART IV—ELIZABETH RUSSELL, DOWAGER (1601–1609)
Letters 48–64 282
Documents 318
Monument 443
Glossary of Persons 448
Calendar of Sources 455
Bibliography 461
Index 487

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